Valentines Flower Order From Mid-Atlantic

He may be facing the supreme physical and mental challenge of rowing 2500 nautical miles non-stop across the Atlantic Ocean but a romantic Falmouth adventurer has found the time to order a Valentine’s bouquet from Scilly flower farm, Scent from the Islands.

Staff at the postal flower delivery company based on St Martin’s were a little shocked, but mostly touched when they received an email order via satellite phone from rower Stephen Bowens.

It asked for a gift box of the farm’s scented golden narcissi to be sent to his girlfriend in Scotland.

Scent from the Islands Office Supervisor, Ella McLachlan, who processed the order, said, “Stephen contacted us about a week ago because he wanted to make sure everything was organised in plenty of time. The message he asked us to send with the bouquet was so lovely.”

Stephen estimates that he and his three fellow rowers, British-born Simon Osborne and Alastair Humphreys, and Slovenian, Marin Medak, will be approximately half way through their gruelling voyage when the flowers arrive. Simon lost his brother Mark to leukaemia and is raising money for Leukaemia & Lymphoma Research.

They left the Canary Islands last month on the 8.8m long boat Tusmobil.

Their final destination is Barbados, where Stephen hopes to be re-united with his girlfriend who has promised to be there to meet him.

Co-owner of Scent from the Islands, Zoe Julian, said: “We’ve delivered flowers to some unusual places before but I don’t think we’ve ever received an order from such an extraordinary location. What a romantic man!”

Stephen and the rest of the transatlantic rowing team have a website plotting their progress. The link to follow their journey is http://www.transatlantik.si/eng.